This invention relates to a multi-task truck that can be configured with various combinations of features and capabilities so that municipalities and other users of the truck can achieve economic and operational efficiencies.
Trucks have been used for maintaining and cleaning municipal water facilities for decades. In 1977, the inventor designed a truck that had a front mounted hose reel for sewer cleaning, together with a crane and a body that was divided into three segments. Containers configured to be received in each of the three segments were provided for holding parts, bricks, and other materials.
Various manufacturers of trucks have offered various options for customizing trucks, including, for example, providing hydraulic work tools that could operate off a truck""s hydraulic system.
Some trucks have interchangeable bodies on a single chassis by providing shear plates on a body that can be bolted to the chassis, or rollers on a body that can roll onto rails provided on a chassis. A particular body (such as a garbage truck body) can then be placed on the shear plates (or rolled onto the rails), so that the assembly becomes a garbage truck. The garbage truck body can later be replaced with another body (a dump truck, for example) in a similar manner. Although multi-task trucks have previously been invented, no multi-task trucks have provided the abilities to serve in a wide variety of capacities.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved multi-task truck that can perform a wider variety of functions than previous multi-task trucks.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such an improved multi-task truck that uses conventional components for ease and economy of manufacture.
These and other objects are achieved by a truck comprising a front mounted hose reel, replaceable with a snow plow, a multi-purpose crane, one or more hydraulic hose reels and a winch and bucket assembly at the end of the crane boom, hydraulic work tools powered by the crane""s hydraulic system, a segmented body configured to receive a plurality of form fitted containers, wherein the body of the truck can be interchangeably mounted on a chassis.